After His crucifixion, Jesus' body was laid in a nearby tomb not His own. A rushed job of burial having been completed, the people were free to celebrate the Passover Sabbath. Just as His body remained in the sepulcher, the memory of Jesus last hours remained on the minds of the disciples throughout Holy Saturday (Matthew 27:59-60; Mark 15:46; Luke 23:53-54; John 19:39-42). Other than this, the day is largely silent. Until the resurrection of Christ, there was not much to think about but His death. Indeed, we all are in the same boat. If Christ had never been raised, “your faith is futile; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). The disciples had scattered and run when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:50), watching in fear from the shadows His suffering and death, and through Holy Saturday hiding for fear of also being arrested (John 20:19). They had much to consider -- Jesus witness and death, the betrayal of Judas and his suicide, the betrayal of Peter and his place among them not to mention the promises of Jesus about His resurrection.
The only biblical reference to what happened on Holy Saturday is found in Matthew 27:62-66. After sundown on Friday—the day of Preparation—the chief priests and Pharisees visited Pontius Pilate. This visit was on the Sabbath (the Jews reckoned a day as starting at sundown) and in the shadow of one of their highest holy days. They risked it all to ask Pilate to place a guard over Jesus’ tomb. In spite of everything that had happened, they still remembered Jesus saying that He would rise again in three days (John 2:19-21) and wanted to do everything they could to prevent even a rumor of that. Even the guards could not prevent God from fulfilling His promise and so the women who returned to the tomb Sunday morning found it empty.
The Vigil is technically not a service of Holy Saturday but the first liturgy of Easter. Even before the light dawns, the people of God gather to recall how the Lord has kept His promises of the past and to anticipate Easter's light with the vigil that acknowledges this resurrection.
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One can only imagine the deep anguish among the disciples and other followers of the Lord the day after His crucifixion. They must have not only feared that the Romans and the Jewish authorities would seek to hunt down those who were the Lord’s followers, but that maybe their own faith had been shattered. They desperately needed reassurance that all had not been in vain. That reassurance cam boldly on Sunday morning. “He is risen. He is risen, indeed.” Soli Deo Gloria
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